The Gateway to Finland

This card was sponsored by the Finland State Railways. And, was first published in 1930. It was sent to me by Koo.

Pori

Pori is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some 15 kilometres (9 mi) from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäenjoki River, which is the largest in Finland. John III established it in 1558.   Pori is the most important town in the Satakunta region. Pia sent me this card from Pori.
The municipality has a population of 83,192 (31 January 2012) and covers an area of 1,704.07 square kilometres (657.95 sq mi) of which 870.01 km² (335.91 sq mi) is water.^[1] The population density is 99.74 /km² (258.3 /sq mi). The municipality is unilingually Finnish. Pori is the 11th largest city in Finland, and the 7th largest urban area. The Neo-Gothic Juselius Mausoleum, located in the Käppärä cemetery in central Pori, was built in 1903 by the wealthy industrialist F.A. Juselius for his daughter Sigrid, who died when she was only 11 years old. The mausoleum was designed by the architect Josef Stenbäck. The mausoleum originally had frescoes painted by artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela, but these decayed after a short time. Akseli’s son Jorma Gallen-Kallela using his father’s sketches restored the frescoes.
Pori is known, among other things, for the sandy beaches of Yyteri and for hosting Pori Jazz, an annual international jazz festival. Performers at the jazz festival have included Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, The Brand New Heavies and Steely Dan. B.B King is an honorary mayor of the city.

Warehouses in Hudiksvall Harbour, Halsingland

Hudiksvall was founded by King John III of Sweden in 1582. He had the inhabitants moved from the town Hudik, where his father Gustav Vasa had collected the trade- and craftsmen of Hälsingland in order to more easily collect taxes, to Hudiksvall by the shores of the bay. At the time, fishing and the trading of furs, skins, iron, copper and wood products were the main sources of income, and the city flourished. But the city lost its privileges for foreign trading in 1636, and its development was somewhat stalled for the next two centuries. This card showing the famous warehouses of Hudiksvall, was sent to me by Inge of Germany.

Search and rescue

This nice card sent to me by Silke from Bremen shows a boat of the German Maritime Rescue Service GMRS on station. Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search is conducted over. These include Mountain rescue; ground search and rescue, including the use of search and rescue dogs; urban search and rescue in cities; combat search and rescue on the battlefield and air-sea rescue over water.

Search and Rescue in German waters is conducted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger DGzRS (literally translated: German Association for the Saving of Shipwrecked, more common: German Maritime Rescue Service GMRS) with air support by the German Navy and the German Air Force. All incoming requests are coordinated by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Bremen. The DGzRS is a non-governmental organization entirely supported by donations.
Besides the offshore Search And Rescue services, the German Air Force provides 8 SAR Command Posts on a 24/7 basis with the Bell UH-1D Huey. Further, the Technisches Hilfswerk is a key component of the German disaster relief framework. It is, among other things, regularly involved in urban search and rescue efforts abroad.

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (born 17 March 1839, in Vaduz, in Liechtenstein – died 25 November 1901, in Munich) was a German organist and composer, born in Liechtenstein. Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, who was the son of the Prince of Liechtenstein's treasurer, showed exceptional musical talent at an early age. At the age of only seven Rheinberger became organist at Vaduz Parish Church, and his first composition was performed the following year. In 1851, his father, who had initially been resistant to his son's desire to pursue a musical career, allowed him to enter the Munich Conservatory, where he later became professor of piano and subsequently professor of composition. When the Munich Conservatorium was dissolved he was appointed répétiteur at the Court Theatre, from which he resigned in 1867. Rheinberger married his former pupil, the poetess and socialite Franziska von Hoffnaass (eight years his senior) in 1867. Though the couple would remain childless, their marriage was happy. Franziska wrote the texts for much of her husband's vocal work.
Rheinberger's influences ranged from contemporaries such as Johannes Brahms to composers from earlier times, such as Franz Schubert and Johann Sebastian Bach. He was also influenced by painting and literature (especially English and German). Rheinberger was a prolific composer. His religious works include twelve masses (one for double chorus, three for four voices a cappella, three for women's voices and organ, two for men's voices and one with orchestra), a requiem, and a Stabat Mater. His other works include several operas, symphonies, chamber music, and choral works. Today he is remembered almost exclusively for his elaborate and challenging organ compositions; these include two concertos, 20 sonatas in 20 different keys (of a projected set of 24 sonatas in all the keys), 22 trios, 12 Meditations, 24 fughettos, and 36 solo pieces. His organ sonatas were once declared to be undoubtedly the most valuable addition to organ music since the time of Mendelssohn. They are characterized by a happy blending of the modern romantic spirit with masterly counterpoint and dignified organ style.
Rheinberger died in 1901, and was buried in the Alter Südfriedhof in Munich. During World War II, his grave was destroyed, and his remains were moved to his hometown of Vaduz in 1950. Thank you Merja for this nice maxicard.

Bluberries or are they Bilberries?

Blueberries are perennial flowering plants with indigo-colored berries (a genus which also includes cranberries and bilberries). They are the most common fruits sold as "blueberries" and are native to North America (commercially cultivated highbush blueberries were not introduced into Europe until the 1930s).

They are usually erect but sometimes prostrate shrubs varying in size from 10 centimeters (3.9 in) to 4 meters (13 ft) tall. In commercial blueberry production, smaller species are known as "lowbush blueberries" (synonymous with "wild"), and the larger species are known as "highbush blueberries". The leaves can be either deciduous or evergreen, ovate to lanceolate, and 1–8 cm (0.39–3.1 in) long and 0.5–3.5 cm (0.20–1.4 in) broad. The flowers are bell-shaped, white, pale pink or red, sometimes tinged greenish. The fruit is a berry 5–16 millimeters (0.20–0.63 in) in diameter with a flared crown at the end; they are pale greenish at first, then reddish-purple, and finally dark blue when ripe. They have a sweet taste when mature, with variable acidity. Blueberry bushes typically bear fruit in the middle of the growing season: fruiting times are affected by local conditions such as altitude and latitude, so the height of the crop can vary from May to August depending upon these conditions.

Blueberry is native to North America and is nowadays cultivated also in Europe. In Finland, blueberries are used much like bilberries. Compared to bilberry, the flavour of blueberry is very sweet but somewhat bland, lacking the complexity of flavour of the former. Blueberries are much larger in size than bilberries and their flesh is almost colourless. Thank you Eeva for this nice card showing the blueberry plant.

 

Republic of China Navy

Not to be confused with People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the naval forces of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

The Republic of China Navy is the maritime branch of the Armed forces of the Republic of China (Taiwan). The ROC Navy's primary mission is to defend ROC territories and the sea lanes that surround Taiwan against a blockade, attack, or possible invasion by forces of the People's Republic of China. Operations include maritime patrols in the Taiwan Strait and surrounding waters, as well as counter-strike and counter-invasion operations during wartime. The Republic of China Marine Corps functions as a branch of the Navy. The ship prefix for ROCN combatants is ROCS (Republic of China Ship); an older usage is CNS (Chinese Navy Ship).
This nice card showing three of ROC Navy’s ships alongside was sent to me by YuLing.